How Facebook dodges Taxes: 0.3% Taxes On $1.34 Billion Profits

Originally posted by randomname
how can running a free website result in it making $1.3 billion and then posting a $24 million loss.

something fishy in marine land.

To address the "free website" portion of your question - facebook makes money from ads, Zynga games, etc. Their stock value is partially based on
the speculation that one day they'll make significantly more money selling personal demographically-targeted marketing data. The data Facebook has on
Individuals could easily be sold for $100 per lead.

we will just raise taxes on the middle class. Why, they only need to invest several hundreds of thousands to a cool mill or more of dollars in
facebook and they too can participate in the corporate gains and saved taxes.

I didn't know where exactly to put this subject. If needed, please move.

Facebook funnels its foreign profits into its Irish subsidiary. As the Guardian article explains: Facebook is structured so that companies buying
advertisements on the website in the UK, or anywhere outside of the US, have to pay Facebook Ireland. As a result, Facebook manages to slash its taxes
in other countries, paying, for example, $380,800 in British tax on estimated 2011 UK profits of $280 million, or a little over 0.1%. What is
shocking is that Facebook paid so much Irish tax since it managed to convert its $1.3 billion gross profit into a net loss of $24 million.

So FACEBOOK... the darling of The 98% is doing the same thing as the much my red 2%? WHAT A CONCEPT!
2nd line

Well, if you wonder how the rich get even richer, this is part of the answer. Rich people have the money and means at their disposal to hire the best
consultants. They know the gaps in the legal system and that's how profits are made.

The cost of hiring a few good consultants is peanuts compared to the benefits. The result is that their actions are technically legit. Just another
example of how law and morals aren't the same thing at all.

In the mean while, the average Joe who bailed out the banks pays the full price.

This is such a huge problem in the US that it is insane. Republicans talk about keeping government out of big business, but when left to their own
devices, they basically screw the system, which in turn screws the majority of the population. What is left of the middle class, as well as the lower
class, are paying a total tax rate that is just ridiculous when compared to what the super-wealthy and billion dollar companies are paying.

I guarantee that a person who is barely scraping by will feel the sting much more than someone making millions, if the tax rate is a flat percentage,
despite the fact that the wealthy are paying more money. This is common sense. The reason that the government has not cracked down on corporations and
the Wall Street crooks is that lobbyists from these organizations make sure to grease the right wheels of the political machinery. Look at the people
in the top echelons of the financial sector of the US government. They have made millions if not billions working for places like Goldman-Sachs; that,
or they will have a job waiting for them when they are done pillaging the US population.

This conflict of interest is just remarkable, and something should have been done about it long ago. But the truth is although we are told that we can
vote out the bad apple politicians, this is just a lie. Why? Because it takes many, many politicians to actually change something, and the majority of
them are siding with the companies, because they get richer that way. The good politicians' hands are tied, because there just are not enough of
them. Plus, with all the lies fed to the public, no one really knows who the good ones and bad ones are. The corporations run America, and they do not
pay taxes like most people do. Instead, they are given money by the government. The loopholes that exist are there for a reason. These are not
oversights by those making the laws.

WHY THE F~~~ DO AVERAGE CITIZENS NEED TO PAY ANY TAXES IF LARGE COMPANIES LIKE FACEBOOK AND GE ARE GETTING AWAY WITH THIS BULLS~~~?! EXCUSE MY CAPS
BUT THIS IS F~~~ING RDICULOUS, MAN. IM NOT PAYING ANYMORE DAMN TAXES

Their morals are totally legit. They have a professional, legal, and moral obligation to maximize the returns for their investors and shareholders.
It's not their fault that idiotic masses of people vote in idiotic leaders that write idiotic tax laws.

You are very wrong ... the corporations bought and paid for these tax loop holes ... not the idiot people .....

No, you are very wrong, and provide perfect proof of my point.

If your premise is that corporations provide money for lobbyists it makes no difference. The people vote for those who made the laws . The people
are idiots for voting for them.

If your premise is the corporations provide campaign money for the politicians, the politicians then turn and use the money to buy advertising that
-viola! convinces idiotic people to vote for politicians based on 30 seconds of stupid advertising.

Ask yourself who voted for the people who passed the laws. Corporations don't vote.

Anyway, the overall point is Facebook is smart to set up shop in Ireland. There's no entitlement that the US government can force companies to
incorporate in the US, or receive income in the US.

Originally posted by JiggyPotamus
This is such a huge problem in the US that it is insane. Republicans talk about keeping government out of big business, but when left to their own
devices, they basically screw the system, which in turn screws the majority of the population. What is left of the middle class, as well as the lower
class, are paying a total tax rate that is just ridiculous when compared to what the super-wealthy and billion dollar companies are paying.

I guarantee that a person who is barely scraping by will feel the sting much more than someone making millions, if the tax rate is a flat percentage,
despite the fact that the wealthy are paying more money. This is common sense. The reason that the government has not cracked down on corporations and
the Wall Street crooks is that lobbyists from these organizations make sure to grease the right wheels of the political machinery. Look at the people
in the top echelons of the financial sector of the US government. They have made millions if not billions working for places like Goldman-Sachs; that,
or they will have a job waiting for them when they are done pillaging the US population.

This conflict of interest is just remarkable, and something should have been done about it long ago. But the truth is although we are told that we can
vote out the bad apple politicians, this is just a lie. Why? Because it takes many, many politicians to actually change something, and the majority of
them are siding with the companies, because they get richer that way. The good politicians' hands are tied, because there just are not enough of
them. Plus, with all the lies fed to the public, no one really knows who the good ones and bad ones are. The corporations run America, and they do not
pay taxes like most people do. Instead, they are given money by the government. The loopholes that exist are there for a reason. These are not
oversights by those making the laws.

Don't you get that it's the low tax rates of other countries that attract business? And it's high corporate tax rates in the US that drive
companies out?

What about this is hard to understand? Do you think the US is entitled to levy taxes on income foreign businesses earn in foreign countries? Really?

They've won. TPTB have succeeded in enticing US citizens to WANT big government to extend it's reach, not lessen it. All hail the taking of money
at gunpoint by the US government.

Also, even if they paid the full corporation tax we're still being fleeced.

People need to realise that Human beings are taxed on gross income, NOT net income like corporations are.

Either corporations should be taxed on income not net income. Or people should be taxed on net income too therefore after expenses such as
mortgage/rent bills food, running the car, clothing, entertainment etc etc.

It's a huge double standard. If anything people should be taxed less than corporations not more.

Their morals are totally legit. They have a professional, legal, and moral obligation to maximize the returns for their investors and shareholders.
It's not their fault that idiotic masses of people vote in idiotic leaders that write idiotic tax laws.

You are very wrong ... the corporations bought and paid for these tax loop holes ... not the idiot people .....

No, you are very wrong, and provide perfect proof of my point.

If your premise is that corporations provide money for lobbyists it makes no difference. The people vote for those who made the laws . The people
are idiots for voting for them.

If your premise is the corporations provide campaign money for the politicians, the politicians then turn and use the money to buy advertising that
-viola! convinces idiotic people to vote for politicians based on 30 seconds of stupid advertising.

Ask yourself who voted for the people who passed the laws. Corporations don't vote.

Anyway, the overall point is Facebook is smart to set up shop in Ireland. There's no entitlement that the US government can force companies to
incorporate in the US, or receive income in the US.

You are wrong ..... the corporations are driving an agenda through politics...... I doubt you realize that it was the insurance corporations who wrote
Obamacare and the Medicare Part D plan.... Corporations have loaded their representatives onto committees where the bills are written .... your
mistaken if you think that the Congressional morons write the bills they submit for votes. These bills are put together by groups of people .....
there are like 70,000 people involved in bill writing which are NOT elected representatives.

I guess in your dream world all of the tax loopholes and special regulations that only apply to corporations were put there by the common citizens
......

Also the "2-party system" which we have now is bought and owned by big business ..... both sides have already been paid for ...... The people can
not vote properly if they don't know the truth ...

remember asbestos ..... and the big uproar about it in the US .... most other western countries banned asbestos in the 1940s except for the US who was
told by "corporations" it was no danger ... oh then there is cigarettes ... I guess the people were not lied to then either ......

corporations would not exist the way the do today if the US would have followed the founding fathers advice .....

This story really annoys me, there are people in this world genuinely struggling to make ends meet, getting taxed up to the eyeballs and barely having
enough money to cover the rent and bills each month. But here is a multi-million-pound company who CAN pay tax but is so greedy that it finds a way to
pay the absolute minimum.

I think this should be classed as tax evading because well........it is. If I was found evading tax I would be sent to court and hung out to dry,
maybe a suspended sentence if Im lucky if not a custodial, and Im talking about a few thousand pounds NOT millions like facebook.

Meanwhile while all this is going on Mark Zuckerberg is sunning himself up in Maui..........

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